I’ve said it before, I’m not a “review” guy. I feel no compulsion to recount in excruciating detail all the technical minutiae of anything. Either I like something or I don’t, and I don’t mind briefly explaining why. 

Harman Phoenix 200 35mm color film is a thing I like very much.

Harman Technology, heretofore famous for its black-and-white-only Ilford branded film, teased us that something new, something big was coming. There was no shortage of film enthusiasts who confidently guessed that the big news was the introduction of a color film stock. They were correct.

As curious as I was, I intentionally avoided early reviews of Phoenix 200. I bought a single roll, dropped it into a clear plastic bag along with about 20 other various rolls of film and took it with me on a trip to Italy. I loaded the roll into my Minolta XD5, outfitted alternately with 28mm f/2.8 and 45mm f/2 lenses. I split the 36 frames up between scenes in Rome and Florence.

I didn’t know what to except as far as the look of the film, and I was admittedly a bit surprised at how grainy it is for a 200 ISO film. But I love the texture. I was a bit surprised by how contrasty it is. But I love the colors. So yeah, I’m a fan of Harman Phoenix 200 film and I will definitely buy more. That is all.

Oh, here are some shots:

Follow my (almost, but not quite) daily film photography posts on Instagram.